It is known that wireless carriers provide their subscribers' wireless telephones with a preferred roaming list or table. As is known in the art, the preferred roaming list includes a list of system IDs (“SIDs”) stored on configurable memory of the wireless telephone. A subscriber's wireless telephone uses the preferred roaming list to determine the system on which the wireless telephone is to operate based on the telephone's physical location. For example, when a subscriber is roaming in an area where the subscriber's wireless network does not itself provide service, the subscriber's cellular telephone references the preferred roaming list and selects a particular SID of a different carrier from the list of SIDs programmed in the preferred roaming list. The system identified by the selected SID is then utilized to complete the subscriber's call.
Typically, the SID is selected from the preferred roaming list based on a predetermined priority. The priority of each SID is preferably based on the rate at which the call on the identified system will be charged to the subscriber's wireless carrier. Thus, the SID identifying the system that charges the best, i.e. lowest, rate to the subscriber's carrier will have the highest priority. Often, this SID will identify the subscriber's own carrier. Other criteria, e.g., availability of digital services, may also govern the order in which the SIDs are prioritized in the preferred roaming list.
Typically, a preferred roaming list is initially programmed when a subscriber's phone is first activated. Thereafter, it may be reprogrammed, i.e. the list of SIDs in the preferred roaming list may be changed manually by the carrier or it may be changed via over the air programming (OTAP). TIA/EIA/IS-683-A specifies over the air programming for analog or CDMA systems which can be used to remotely change a preferred roaming list of a subscriber's mobile device.
From time to time, wireless carriers renegotiate their roaming service contracts with other wireless carriers and may even add or partner with new carriers. Also, a wireless carrier may install new equipment and provide new services in a particular geographic region. Accordingly, over time, the preferred roaming list originally provided to a subscriber's mobile phone may not presently reflect the best, i.e. most advantageous, configuration of preferred system identifications.
To remedy this situation, wireless carriers often request that their subscribers initiate a preferred roaming list change. The change is accomplished using over the air programming which can be initiated by the subscriber.
As an example, the wireless carrier instructs the subscriber to dial a certain number using their wireless handset. In the Verizon Wireless® system, the subscriber is requested to dial *228. The subscriber then hears a series of voice prompts requesting depression of certain keys of the subscriber's wireless telephone. Upon successful completion of the voice prompt procedure, over the air programming of the subscriber's preferred roaming list occurs.
A wireless carrier typically requests that a subscriber initiate the preferred roaming list change by making such request in writing via the subscriber's monthly billing statement. Because this manner of request is not convenient or conducive to immediate action by the subscriber, wireless carriers have a low response rate to such requests and are generally unsuccessful in promoting preferred roaming list changes.
What is needed, therefore, and heretofore has not been available, is a method and system for effectively inducing subscriber-initiated change of a preferred roaming list in a subscriber's mobile device and, what is further needed is such a method that is initiated solely through interaction with a mobile communications device.